Bugbite Balboa

May 23, 2012

Mornin' Ezra, why are you rubbing your eye and ear so much? Is everything oka...

...OH DEAR GOD.

(And also: ADDDDDDDRIAAAAAANNNNNN!)

Ugh! This again. The dreaded I-swear-I-am-not-making-this-up Skeeter Syndrome. Still hasn't outgrown it, though I was hopeful this would be the year. Alas, it looks like we're in for another long summer with a perpetually disfigured (and/or coked-up-on-Benadryl) child.

The worst part is that the mosquitoes just fucking LOVE Ezra so much. They swarm to him, especially his poor, sweet little face. (Though he also has about five gigantic welts on his legs, all hot and angry with oozy blistering centers.) If you send 10 kids outside to play for five minutes, Ezra will come inside with more bites than the rest of them combined. Sometimes he's the ONLY one bit, probably because he's a literal mosquito magnet. And then BOOM. Quasimodo realness.

He's like reverse citronella: Want to drive mosquitos out of your backyard? Here's Ezra. Just toss him over the fence. Problem solved, Pied Piper style.

"Don't worry, Mommy," he told me this morning, right after my initial real-life OH MY GOD reaction to the swelling, "My mosquito bites will get better on Friday."

My oldest (the one who got the bat to the head the other day) had this when he was younger and I dreaded the outdoors because we would face months of iching and knots. The only good thing is that they out-grow it.

Poor, poor E! My 6 year old son is the same way- any bug bite turns into a gigantic lump. He spends all summer lathered in bug spray and covered with band-aids so he doesn't itch himself raw. I keep hoping he'll outgrow it, but my mom is the same way and it's never gone away. :/

My son has the same thing - people thought I was crazy. He seems to get bitten in the temple or the shins often, and he swells up like crazy! We should invent Benadryl jello at the rate these poor dudes have to take it!

Holy shit. I had no idea about skeeter syndrome, but it totally describes me as well. I am always the one bitten more than everyone else combined. At a barbecue once, outside for an hour and a half, I got 14 bites. The most anyone else got was 2. And I definitely puff up, itch way more than most people and bruise from the bites.

We all took vitamin B1 as children during the summer. It both makes you less "delicious" to mosquitos, and makes any bites you do get less severe. It really seemed to work. The only problem is the pills taste awful if you're too young to understand how to swallow a pill whole without really tasting it. Here's one online article about it:

awww poor little kid. I know what it's like, i have the same reaction to wasps when they sting. very much allergic. I wish i had a solution for you, but just like poor little ezra i have to be patient and wait for it to pass. You could maybe try a mosquito net over his bed but those little pests will probably find him when he is not under it.

I was the SAME EXACT WAY as a child. I've grown out of the giant swollen bites... but I'm still a mosquito magnet. I read something saying that certain people lack a natural chemical that repels mosquitoes. Ezra and I must have that in common.

I did a homemade (chemical free) bug spray of witch hazel mixed with about 20 drops each of peppermint oil and eucalyptus oil. It works pretty well on mosquitoes (not so much for chiggers, if you have those) and smells good too!

My sons both have this and it sucks. We do go through a lot of Benadryl, but our doctor also gave us a prescription for a topical cream that takes the swelling and itch down a notch. We don't leave home without it in the summer months!

I was going to suggest the eating-lots-of-garlic thing, which I SWEAR has worked for me, but I did a quick bit of googling and it looks like google is on the side of Old Wives' Tale. Oh well. This New York Times article, though, does mention that drinking alcohol attracts mosquitos. Tell Ezra to lay off the nightcaps already.

This still happens to me and I'm 33. One summer we were backpacking in a mosquito infested area, and the first morning I woke up with my eyes swollen shut from mosquito bites. My dad threw all the gear onto his back (there were five kids) and marched us back to the car for a lunch at a Dennys in the middle of nowhere. Bizarrely, a really wonderful memory from my child.

I reacted the same way most of my life. On my first day of college, my eye swelled shut from a mosquito bite and I ended up in the health center. You can imagine what a great first impression I made on my dorm-mates.
After I had my first child, it went away! No idea if the two things are related or not, but I am guessing pregnancy changed my body chemistry in some way. Yay! I still get a lot of bites, but no swelling. Poor baby. Hope he feels better soon.

We used to have big family reunions in the Mediterranean in the summers, and always used those mosquito repellent mats, the kind that have a little heating pad, we still see the occasional mosquito, but it was pretty effective. I'm not sure about how safe they were, but Europe usually has pretty high safety standards.

So wait, that looking forward to Friday shit starts THIS EARLY? Damn. And poor Ezra. Zaid is currently sporting a forehead full of bites while the girls have only one or two. I swear I think the mosquitoes in the past five years have been secretly injected with government goo to ready them for the insect apocalypse. No other reason for those bitches to show up in April, hang around until November and be RESISTANT TO THE BESTEST SPRAY/CLIP ON/GEL/LOTION/CANDLE/RING OF FIRE I'M GOING TO BURN THE HOUSE DOWN TRYING TO KILL THE DAMN BUGS.

when I was little I was also a mosquito magnet and would get giant welts, although I don't remember getting them on my face ever. my mom gave me garlic pills, and that basically totally stopped the mosquitos from biting me. I've also heard that if you drink a tiny amount (tsp?) of vinegar, mixed in water or juice, then the bugs won't bother you so much.

I've haven't tried the vinegar because now that I'm all old and bitter, nothing comes near me. But maybe one of these tips will work for Ezra!

Ugh! We have a similar problem with my child and dogs. She loves them, they love her. It's mutual attraction that leads to eyes swelled shut and instant asthma attack. Awesome.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of her at a friend's house for a party this weekend to illustrate (my instincts need to be more toward recording their suffering). I did get a good picture of a decapitate unicorn, though.

I was going to mention Zyrtec but someone beat me to it. Or try Claritin since it might be less expensive. Either way they're both non drowsy antihistimines so they may help. Poor Ez. And this is a bad year for all bugs, not just skeeters. All six of my strictly inside cats have fleas. I have no clue how they got them since no one had even been out in a carrier to go to the vet in months, but somehow one or two got in and now they're all infested and I have to spend a fortune on Advantage and bomb the house. Damn bugs!

My daughter has the same exact reaction and we give her Zyrtrec once a day for the entire mosquito season. Which, in Minnesota, is like nine months out of the year. It doesn't make the welts completely stop, but at least we don't go running to urgent care anymore.

Happened last week to my 3yo, only it was BELOW his eye and HUGE. Not sure if it was a mosquito or what, but at the clinic they gave him Benadryl.
I have bought and will use those Off circulating fans to try to keep the bugs away this year. Wish us luck. Good luck to you, too!

Can I second the Zyrtec recommendation. I've got a 4 year old with seasonal allergies, eczema, and skeeter syndrome. Add in sensitive skin (gotta be careful with sunscreen and bug spray) -- and I just give him zyrtec most days. It helps so much. I swear his first words were "itchy momma"
:)

Yes...I lurk. :-) My boy, who just turned 18 yesterday, used to have same reaction to skeeters. The Doc's said it was cellulitus (sp?) I used Melaleuca Oil when I first noticed the bite. It seemed to take the swelling down before it became infected/inflamed. If you happen to know anyone who sells Melaleuca Oil (pure oil) try it, it saved a lot of disfiguring and pain. Hope this helps.
By the way, love reading, sorry I don't usually comment. Have a great summer.
Brandi N.

No real advice here--I'm the same way (at almost 29) and I still itch like crazy every time I go outside. No one else needs spray around me because I will attract them all. Since I got pregnant, it has gotten even more fun (so tell Ezra to take his birth control pills). I think I have five on one foot and three on the other leg (long pants and shirts for the win). Afterbite works wonders on the itching though.

Another Zyrtec vote...I have this dreaded syndrome now as an adult. I take a pill a day the whole mosquito season, it takes the suffering down a few notches. I also have an arsenal of repellents, natural and chemical, that I rotate through. I pretend the mosquitos are like the Borg - must modulate my shield frequencies to confuse them….. Good luck!

I don't ever comment, but I have to! We've had the same problem and started using Mosquito Squad to spray our (DC area) yard from April through October. It's made a huge difference in the quality of life for us. Still need some Zyrtec and some Allegra but for the most part our daughter isn't as tormented.

Another vote for Avon skin so soft (I use it on my horse too!). You need the greeney blue body oil - but diluted at least 50/50 with some water if its going onto sun exposed skin, otherwise skin + oil = burn.

Apparantly both the UK and US army use it and if its good enough for them...

Oh, no! Poor Ez. I'm sure you have your own system, but these work wonders for keeping bugs away from my daughter as legwarmers or armwarmers:
http://www.babylegs.com/BabyNoBugs-C793.aspx
Plus, they're cute as all get-out.
I hope he's feeling less itchy and looking better soon!

I agree with all the things already said, but my "get no bites" trick is garlic supplements. No one gets bitten ever anymore. We live in Central Florida, so I know that if there were to be bites, we'd get 'em if not for the garlic I pour into my children every day. 20 minutes before going outside or every 4 hours or so. Cannot over dose. Cannot over recommend!

So this is me. I just turned thirty and its still an issue :(
I have found that if I drink a tablespoon of vinegar mixed in to a glass of water each day, I get way fewer bites. I've started experimenting with flavored vinegars too and they all seem to work. Raspberry and blackberry infused vinegars actually taste really awesome diluted with cold water.
Good luck Ezra, hope you do grow out of it, skeeter bites are no fun.

My youngest has this too. And as much as this is probably toxic and awful, we use 100% DEET. Only thing that works for him. (and I do cook with a lot of garlic and that Avon stuff might as well be used with a giant 'welcome mosquitoes' sign.)

His Friday sounds way more fun than mine (driving 6+ hours in a car with a 2.5-year-old).

My husband seems to attract mosquitoes just like Ezra does (although without the welts). It helped him to stop wearing any fragrance or product, but who the hell knows. I have some kind of mosquito zen and I never get bitten.

Oh dear! The same thing used to happen to me - I even remember one summer when I got a bite near my eye and my mom wouldn't let me out of the house for a week because she thought people would think she was beating me (!!) Needless to say, my family became frequent buyers of Bactine.

My daughter, who is two, also has a severe allergic reaction to mosquitoes...and they eat her alive. We actually use a whole cocktail of antihistamines. The best is Zantac...yes, Zantac. It contains another type of histamine blocker and really seems to minimize the swelling and oozing more than anything else. You may want to ask your pediatrician about getting a prescription. We use it in conjunction with Benadryl and Singulair. So sorry. I can totally empathize considering the entire DC area is nothing but a swamp!

My daughter is the exact same way. Every summer Bella is covered in mosquito bites, usually on her face. She also can't stop itching them, so we end up with a puffy-faced kid with oozing sores all over her body. I think the problem is she doesn't swat them away. I've watched her play outside, and I swear I saw her happily swimming in the pool with four mosquitos just chilling on her face.

This is funny because just a few hours ago, I posted a picture of our "skeeter syndrome" season opener. A few weeks ago, whatever mosquito my son is so allergic to got him on the back of his ear and I didn't dose him with Benadryl soon enough. I thought it was bad when his whole arm or leg swells up, but the ear was the WORST. Ears just aren't meant to stretch much there at the top, you know?

My 12 yr old son also has Skeeter Syndrome. Always has. And puberty has brought on several new allergies. My other son won't have a bite on him but the oldest will be covered in bites and welts. We also found out last month that he isn't allergic to bees/wasps, etc (a diff dr prescribed an epipen after a sting), he just has very large reactions to ALL bug bites. After his sting, his foot was extremely swollen and he couldn't walk on it for a couple days. Anyway, his allergist said to give him B1 (thiamine). He's already on Flonase and Claratin daily.

My husband also attracts bugs but he has a normal reaction when bitten. His mom used to make him take garlic pills. My son's allergist says that doesn't work... But people in this thread said it worked for them, so maybe it works for some.

I had this exact reaction on my right eye last year. Landed me in urgent care...and I'm 37... They gave me topical corticosteroid cream. Benadryl did't stop the itching from a lot of the mosquitos. Maybe it's not helping with some of Ezra's either? The topical cream made a HUGE difference. Zyrtec spaces me out. Claritin gives me headaches. You can buy AfterBite at the drug store (not near eyes tho!) and it works pretty well. My mom used that on us for YEARS.

I am the same way - and I've never outgrown it. I keep hoping 38 will be the lucky year. My daughter thinks every day she has "nastics" - and it's always her favorite part of the day. My older daughter always refers to "Lasterday" as anytime in the past before yesterday. The sentence always starts "Remember lasterday when I was three...."
Tracy @ www.momaical.com

Poor Ez! But he's so stinking cute, even with one eye swollen shut. I have a friend (now in his 30s) who still has this problem. I hate to say it, but it's kind of awesome when he's around because the bugs don't bother everyone else as much!

I just discovered the best bug spray ever, by the way! (And I'm from Coastal Georgia, so I have experience with these things.) It's called Off! Smooth and Dry. It smells really good and you don't even know you're wearing it. I tried it for the first time last week on a field trip with my students to a wooded/marshy wildlife education center, and nothing ever came near me (while my poor kids who forgot to apply at home were being eaten alive, but we can't put it on them!).

I use Skin So Soft on my daughter. I could dip her in DEET and it wouldnt stop a single mosquito but the skin so soft really works well for her. She is a mosquito magnet too. A friend sent her out to play one day last summer and she came in with 36 bites in les than 30 minutes. I wish I had been there to spray her down first.

I'm like Katie up there. I was horrible as I child, bitten more often and huge welts with every bite. Then, I had a baby. Nowhere near as many bites, and nowhere near the reaction. They are a minor annoyance now. I swear I get more bites after baby #2 than I did between the kids, but still a huge improvement over before kids. Try Zyrtec or Claritin, and go for the topical benedryl too, cream or gel. Also, ice packs. Poor muffin, he deserves to have his dream Friday :)

I have to say that one of the reasons I read you every day (that you post) is I keep seeing such similarities between us, and not just the Star Wars love. I lost my dad just over a year ago, my second daughter was born a couple of months after your youngest, and now this. My five year old (Leia :)) is covered in bites. She refuses all medicine and she scratches until they bleed. Bug spray doesn't seem to stop them. It's AMAZING. and another weird thing we have in common.

Poor little guy! Mosquitos do the same thing to me. Then I started wearing Moonlight Path lotion from Bath and Body Works, and they don't care for the smell, I guess. My husband doesn't care for the smell, either, so, it's a catch 22.

Holy Jesus. Is that . . . normal? I've never seen anything like that. The doctors are just okay with this? Well, my mom made us drink orange juice with yeast in it to make us unappetizing to mosquitoes, but I'm sure you've googled all manner of bug repellent. But, man. I'm impressed. Those is some impressive bug bites.

We live not far away and I too suffer from skeeter syndrome. We actually bit the bullet last year and hired mosquito squad for our yard, we do the natural treatment and i am telling you, it works. Still the occasional bite but I can actually eat dinner outside with my family without slathering myself in DEET... it's ridiculously expensive but it's worth it for me to see the outside of the house, in the evening, in july.

My cousin suffers from the dreaded Skeeter syndrome :( She was bitten last year while we were at the beach and her leg swelled up so bad and was hot to the touch and painful. I hate that for anyone! She did say she's had a lot of success with the off clip on repellents if you haven't tried them. They're nice because you don't have to spray anything on your body.

I know this doesn't really do you any good, but I used to get tons and tons of bites each year (I'd have anywhere from 10-15 at a time). Since I started taking Topamax for my migraines about 10 years ago, I've had on average 1-2 bites per summer. Don't know if there's something there... but hey! I could be on to something!!

I literally gasped out loud. Poor baby. Many moons ago when we lived in the swamps of Florida in Mosquito Alley, we broke down and bought a $300+ Mosquito Deleto. It was propane fueled. They don't sell that exact product anymore but there have been tons of new ones developed since then. If it hadn't helped us out so much I wouldn't bother mentioning it but truly it made a massive difference. Gah, poor Ezra. Good luck.

I get ate up by skeeters like he does. DEET helps but of course it's unhealthy. Something I just tried in the last few weeks was rubbing 'basil' on me. I have a little plant that I bought and planted and read that skeeters didnt like it....it appears to work...but it's a pain and you smell like a lasagna factory.

My daughter also has this reaction. For the itch, we use aloe with lidocaine-you can find this in the grocery store as a sunburn relief remedy, and it works pretty well to numb the itch so she doesn't scratch and make it much worse.

I just want to pipe in and recommend that anybody considering applying tea tree oil to their children do a little internet research about it potentially being an endocrine disruptor that may cause enlarged breasts in little boys. See NIH press release here: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jan2007/niehs-31.htm

OMG, I forgot about this from last year. I don't swell up like that but I am the pied piper of skeeters. I wear 100% DEET when I'm outside the city and when I'm in city parks I wear an OFF fan. The city fogs for the things (which I'm sure is unhealthy but no-one seems to notice my third arm) and that does seem to help here quite a bit. Also, in my condo area; I'm a complete nazi about standing water. They have a several mile radius flying distance so I go out walking the dog with a dropper of oil to put in standing water on the property. They have to have standing water to breed, and the larva have to surface tobreathe air while living under water - so I know that oil on the surface of the water helps.

I grew up in Northern Ontario, Canada where we have mosquitoes the size of pterodactyls. My parents brought me in to the doctor when I'd been bitten so badly that both eyes were swollen shut and I looked like I had jawbreakers in both cheeks. (That was maybe 6 bites to the face.) He told my mother that they would have to give up our cottage since I couldn't handle being out there in mosquito-central. Instead, my mom made me a bee-keeper-style hat with some mesh to keep the bites away from my face. I still ended up with welts on my arms and legs, but it was a small price to pay for all those days out in the woods.

I'm 36 and still dealing with hot, itchy welts from mosquitoes. I have tried many remedies because I love being outdoors. I've found that a cotton ball soaked in plain vinegar applied to the bite right away helps keep it from getting really puffy and painful-itchy. Then I use benedryl topical.
The Off fans work pretty well except in heavy mosquito zones - then I add extra repellent. It's hard to be this tasty.

I have a random remedy, but it works!! When Ezra gets a bite, put a piece of scotch tape over it. I know, weird, but SCIENCE and stuff. The tape like sucks out the bad stuff and totally takes the swelling and itch away. I live in Texas and get a ton of bites when I'm out walking the dog in the morning. I just put a bunch of tape over the bites and then remove them 10-20 minutes later. The bites go away. No one ever believes me until they try it. Works like a charm!

I'm a skeeter magnet too. Growing up we always used skin so soft but I got away from that when I got older. After a couple bites left me with an infection (gaaaaaaah) and I kept getting big when no one else was...I had to break out the skin so soft again (off attracts skeeters, at least for me). Get this stuff http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?level1_id=300&level2_id=303&pdept_id=344&dept_id=421&cat_type=B&pf_id=33645, it's THE BEST. I've only had one bite so far this year and that was before I'd be the SSS on.